Foreigners often make some strange mistakes in Chinese when they study the most difficult language— —Chinese. We try to analyze typical sentences to correct these errors.
Māmɑ bǐ wǔ nián qián jiù duō le.
False: 妈妈比五年前旧多了。
Māmɑ bǐ wǔ nián qián lǎo duō le.
True: 妈妈比五年前老多了。
英语可以把“旧”和“老”都议成old,但是汉语的“旧”是用来指事物经过长时间或经过使用而发生变化。原句说的是妈妈年岁大了,不能用“旧”,要用“老”。
旧 and 老 are all translated into "old" in English. But 旧 in Chinese only indicates that things have changed after being used for a long time. The present sentence speaks of advancement in age, thus 老 rather than 旧 should be used.